Close Encounters With Music: Skylark Vocal Ensemble, Matthew Guard, Artistic Director
2027-03-14 16:00 - 18:00 (America/New_York) | Mahaiwe Performing Arts Center, 14 Castle Street, Great Barrington, MA, 01230
TICKETS

$35 Balcony / $60 Orchestra (plus processing fees)
Mahaiwe Member Discount Event
Member Sale:
Wednesday, August 26 at noon
Public Sale:
Friday, August 28 at noon
Members receive $5 off each ticket
Britten’s radiant Flower Songs and Benedict Sheehan’s mellifluous Songbird Antiphons anchor a program of music inspired by gardens, birdsong, and the living world. Recognized as one of the world’s leading vocal ensembles, four-time GRAMMY nominee Skylark blends some of America’s most virtuosic voices into an emotionally impactful and cohesive whole. Through innovative, imaginative, and interdisciplinary programming, Skylark aims to redefine the choral experience for artists and audiences alike. From its homebase in Boston to premiere venues like the Met Cloisters, Spivey Hall, and the Morgan Library, Skylark is setting a global standard in the choral arts with unexpected themes, surprising connections, and imaginative collaborations. Performances have been called “exquisite…thrilling…stunning’ by Gramophone Magazine and “gripping” by The Times of London.

Scott Eyerly’s Virtual Met Opera Lecture: Kevin Puts's Silent Night
2027-03-18 17:30
JOIN
FREE
Scott Eyerly will offer a free opera talk via Zoom the Thursday prior to the Metropolitan Opera’s broadcast the following weekend.
Use the following link at the date and time of the lecture to join: https://us02web.zoom.us/j/88641101777
Composer and librettist Scott Eyerly brings a fresh approach to the Mahaiwe’s Met lectures. He combines his experience as a teacher at The Juilliard School with a wide range of creative accomplishments – from his comic opera My Life Online, premiered at the Edinburgh Fringe, to his musical comedy Pooch, produced in workshop at Seagle Music Festival. Eyerly’s lively talks are drawing novices and cognoscenti alike.

Met Opera Live in HD: Kevin Puts’s Silent Night
2027-03-21 13:00
TICKETS–
$25 / $10 ages 21 and under (plus processing fees)
ConnectorCare/WIC/EBT Card to Culture*
Met Member & Mahaiwe Bravo Circle Sale:
Friday, July 17 at noon
Mahaiwe Member Sale:
Wednesday, July 22 at noon
Public Sale:
Friday, July 24 at noon
This screening is an encore per Mahaiwe scheduling.
Following his smash-hit company debut with The Hours, composer Kevin Puts returns to the Met with his Pulitzer Prize–winning first opera, inspired by the true events of the 1914 Christmas truce, when soldiers spontaneously set aside the horrors of the First World War and crossed the trenches to mingle, exchange gifts, and sing carols with the enemy. A poignant depiction of shared humanity in the most inhumane circumstances, Puts’s grand, cinematic opera—with a libretto by Mark Campbell based on the film Joyeux Noël—has been widely acclaimed since its 2011 premiere, hailed as “an overwhelming emotive experience” by The Guardian. Silent Night receives an evocative staging by James Robinson that takes the audience directly to the battlefields of the Western Front. The star-studded cast, featuring soprano Elza van den Heever and tenors Ben Bliss and Rolando Villazón, among many others, is conducted by debuting maestro Dalia Stasevska.
*We accept ConnectorCare/WIC/EBT cards! Four free tickets to movies or HD broadcasts per individual. Thank you to the donors who make this possible.

Scott Eyerly’s Virtual Met Opera Lecture: Massenet's Manon
2027-04-01 17:30

Met Opera Live in HD: Massenet’s Manon
2027-04-04 12:00
TICKETS

$25 / $10 ages 21 and under (plus processing fees)
ConnectorCare/WIC/EBT Card to Culture*
Met Member & Mahaiwe Bravo Circle Sale:
Friday, July 17 at noon
Mahaiwe Member Sale:
Wednesday, July 22 at noon
Public Sale:
Friday, July 24 at noon
This screening is an encore per Mahaiwe scheduling.
Following her radiant performance in Gounod’s Roméo et Juliette—which garnered raves for “high notes that spun like liquid gold … Sierra touched the operatic firmament” (The New York Times)—superstar soprano Nadine Sierra takes on another alluring French heroine, the irresistible title character of Massenet’s passionate drama. Leading tenor Matthew Polenzani is her idealistic lover, the Chevalier des Grieux, with rising-star baritone Andrzej Filończyk as her stalwart cousin, Lescaut, in a breathtaking Belle Époque staging by director Laurent Pelly.
*We accept ConnectorCare/WIC/EBT cards! Four free tickets to movies or HD broadcasts per individual. Thank you to the donors who make this possible.

Close Encounters With Music: Dvorak – In the New World and Old World
2027-04-18 16:00 - 18:00
TICKETS
$35 Balcony / $60 Orchestra (plus processing fees)
Mahaiwe Member Discount Event
Member Sale:
Wednesday, August 26 at noon
Public Sale:
Friday, August 28 at noon
Members receive $5 off each ticket
Anna Polonsky, piano; Miranda Cuckson and Giora Schmidt, violins; Helena Baillie, viola; Yehuda Hanani, cello; Tyler Duncan, baritone
From humble beginnings to stardom, Antonin Dvorak straddled two centuries, two continents, rural and urban sensibilities and folk styles inspired by Czech and Slavic traditional music as well as by an American sojourn. At home in different worlds, his sublime String Quartet No. 12 "the American" was composed in Spillville Iowa during a blissful vacation, and legitimized utilizing folklore, spirituals, and vernacular art as material for the next generation of American classical composers. The Piano Quintet, a masterwork of Romantic-era chamber music, stands as one of the twin peaks of the repertoire written for piano and string quartet (Brahms's Quintet being the other!). Brahmsian depth, Eastern European folk flavor and sheer melodic beauty characterize this joyful work. Also, a taste of Dvorak's vocal output with selections from his Biblical Songs, the Gypsy Songs cycle and others reflecting his abiding affection for Czech and Bohemian culture.

Scott Eyerly’s Virtual Met Opera Lecture: Verdi's Otello
2027-04-22 17:30

Met Opera Live in HD: Verdi’s Otello
2027-04-25 13:00
TICKETS

$25 / $10 ages 21 and under (plus processing fees)
ConnectorCare/WIC/EBT Card to Culture*
Met Member & Mahaiwe Bravo Circle Sale:
Friday, July 17 at noon
Mahaiwe Member Sale:
Wednesday, July 22 at noon
Public Sale:
Friday, July 24 at noon
This screening is an encore per Mahaiwe scheduling.
One of today’s leading dramatic tenors, Brian Jagde takes on the tour-de-force title role of what many consider the ultimate Italian opera. Verdi’s monumental Shakespearean tragedy also features soprano Ailyn Pérez in her company role debut as the long-suffering Desdemona, alongside baritone Artur Ruciński as the sinister Iago. Michele Mariotti leads the full forces of the Met Orchestra and Chorus in the exhilarating score.
*We accept ConnectorCare/WIC/EBT cards! Four free tickets to movies or HD broadcasts per individual. Thank you to the donors who make this possible.

Close Encounters With Music: Vivace Orchestra – The Golden Chain of Classical Music
2027-05-16 16:00 - 18:00
TICKETS

$35 Balcony / $60 Orchestra (plus processing fees)
Mahaiwe Member Discount Event
Member Sale:
Wednesday, August 26 at noon
Public Sale:
Friday, August 28 at noon
Members receive $5 off each ticket
Western music at its apex—Haydn, Mozart and Beethoven in full symphonic glory with large-scale repertoire never before performed in South County! Beginning with Papa Haydn, the lively “Surprise” Symphony is his most beloved and most popular, providing the model for how a symphony should be composed. Mozart’s Sinfonia Concertante has a lyricism to be found nowhere else in all his oeuvre, with an inspired viola part he wrote for himself to play. Beethoven’s First Symphony completes the magic circle. A masterpiece—iron-fisted control of structure, with wit, humor and irresistible charisma, and as Roman Emperor Francis II, who attended the premiere, is reported to have said, “There is something revolutionary in this music!” Vivace Orchestra brings together 26 top-tier soloists and chamber musicians in an orchestral setting, under the direction of conductor Joshua Gerson.

Scott Eyerly’s Virtual Met Opera Lecture: Wagner's Parsifal
2027-06-10 17:30

Met Opera Live in HD: Wagner’s Parsifal
2027-06-12 12:00
TICKETS

$25 / $10 ages 21 and under (plus processing fees)
ConnectorCare/WIC/EBT Card to Culture*
Met Member & Mahaiwe Bravo Circle Sale:
Friday, July 17 at noon
Mahaiwe Member Sale:
Wednesday, July 22 at noon
Public Sale:
Friday, July 24 at noon
This screening is an encore per Mahaiwe scheduling.
A profound philosophical meditation on compassion and reconciliation, this transcendent rendering of a medieval knight’s heroic quest for the Holy Grail returns to the big screen in François Girard’s celebrated production, a “thoughtful and intrepid staging, full of striking imagery” (The New York Times). Music Director Yannick Nézet-Séguin conducts a cast of Wagnerian superstars, including tenor Piotr Beczała in the title role, mezzo-soprano Elīna Garanča as the enigmatic Kundry, baritone Peter Mattei as the ailing Amfortas, bass-baritone Ryan Speedo Green as the sorcerer Klingsor, and bass Jongmin Park as the wise Gurnemanz.
*We accept ConnectorCare/WIC/EBT cards! Four free tickets to movies or HD broadcasts per individual. Thank you to the donors who make this possible.

Close Encounters With Music: World Premiere – Metamorphosis, Love
2027-06-13 16:00 - 18:00
TICKETS

$35 Balcony / $60 Orchestra (plus processing fees)
Mahaiwe Member Discount Event
Member Sale:
Wednesday, August 26 at noon
Public Sale:
Friday, August 28 at noon
Members receive $5 off each ticket
Jorge Martin, Kenji Bunch,
Omar Najmi, tenor; Dana Varga, soprano; Samuel Solomon and Nancy Zeltsman, percussion; Max Levinson, piano; Yehuda Hanani, cello
Loss, remembrance, joyous recollection, metamorphosis and love. These are universal themes and a progression of states of emotion that animate the music and texture of the program. A work of shattering intensity, Tchaikovsky’s Piano Trio was written in response to the composer’s grief at losing his beloved teacher, Nikolai Rubinstein, and at the same time recollecting the happy moments spent in his company. It is elegiac and cathartic, as is the newest CEWM commission from Jorge Martin, Metamorphosis: Love, that gives the program its name. The Poet/protagonist role is sung by a tenor in dialogue with his Muse, sung by soprano, which in the end becomes Music itself. The accompanying ensemble is cello, piano, marimba and vibraphone. A companion piece (narrator, cello and percussion) is a 2015 CEWM commission from Kenji Bunch, written to a Shakespeare sonnet of desire and longing. Plus art songs from Schubert, Brahms, Faure, Poulenc and Finzi. It’s all about transcendence and love.
